Terralibero

"Terra autem de libera, domum fortis."

(Land of the free, home of the brave)

- Motto of Terralibero

Terralibero (formerly the Republic) was a political entity on Earth that formed shortly after the Civil War. Its capital was in Jefferson City, in the Missouri Territory. Its location proved to be problematic given its proximity to Socialist Council territory.

History
In response to the chaos of the Great Riots, many former members of Congress and loyal citizens tried to maintain the United States in government and principles. The US Constitution, Bill of Rights and government structure was for the most part kept in place, with revisions to make sure that the mistakes of the past were not revisited.

Terraliberans would call themselves Americans, but no other nation-state wanted to admit that they were not the legitimate United States government, so they called people from Terralibero Terraliberans. This was the international standard adjective.

Terralibero was close to the Confederacy, and after the Treaty of Fayettevile citizens and armed forces of both contries could pass freely across the nations' borders.

In reaction to the Eastern Socialist Council's building of domes over their large cities, buildup of their military and eventual incursions into Confederate territory in 2025, Terralibero invaded the Council, partly as a demonstration of their new Powered Infantry and partly to secure good relations with the Confederates.

The Terraliberan government was headed by a President, elected just as they had been in the United States.

Notable presidents of Terralibero included Hernando Gomez, the first Hispanic president. He was elected in 2024 and served his one term during the First War with the Eastern Council. His popularity waned in the late 20s as the war became more and more aggressive and imperialistic, and he did not run in the following election.

Another notable president was Susan Armstrong, the first woman to hold office. She was elected for the maximum two terms and her term was notable for its serenity and prosperity.

Under her, the Terraliberan Space Agency was expanded and made into a more military than civilian organization. Her intention, as she revealed to her descendant Aveline Armstrong, was to prevent the Socialist Council from ever causing another war.

The TSA was assigned to building several huge space stations in lunar, martian and jovial orbit to house an uncontaminated human population engineered to reorganize and rebuild the Earth if any calamity were to occur. Each station trained its occupants for different purposes in a reconstruction scenario, from a peacemaking and negotiation academy to a highly organized Powered Infantry martial school.

The last pre-war president was Walt Trent in the 2050s. Trent was the founder of Walt & Company, later Trent Research Division of VART.

President Trent, along with VART, commissioned and built hundreds of nuclear bombs, far from covertly, as a deterrent from invasion. The Terraliberan Space Agency could nuke any city on the globe if need be, and even the domes of the Socialist Council were vulnerable to a nuclear barrage.

The TSA was a powerful prescence in the Solar System. During the brief battle against the outer space slime mold that was infecting many astronauts, the TSEA helped with missiles and lasers to destroy the slime mold infected space ships as the nations of Earth fought against the disease groundside.

The wormhole's existence in Terralibero had been kept hidden from the Council until this point, but they discovered it because of time travel attempts by Vittorio Cascella.

In the late 2040s and early 50s, the Council created a plan to rid the world of their enemies once and for all, and unite the world under a Communist government.

For the first part of the plan they began Operation Apex, a Dark Ops (Black Ops wasn't politically correct in the Socialist Council) initiative that created, among other things, battle robot squadrons that supplemented the battalions of their armies. The Council's military was expanded hugely during this time, one of the reasons for Terralibero's stockpiling of advanced technology from 2045-2053.

The robots were extremely powerful, fast and intelligent. Standing over two meters high, they boasted the firepower of an entire special operations company and a tank. Their chassis' material was almost completely bulletproof, but high-velocity rounds and CS-3000s and other similar laser weapons could penetrate them.

The automatons gained their intelligence from an adapted Terraliberan technology, the Mind-Body Displacement System. The minds of prisoners, soldiers, scientists, tacticians, and everyday people were selected according to desirable qualities and absorbed into the AI of the robots. The person was technically killed in the procedure, but in a way they "lived" on in the robot's mind. It was possible to remove a consciousness from the computer and put it into a host body (or fresh corpse), but this procedure was extremely difficult and dangerous.

Several robot squads were deployed with the Socialist Army throughout Terraliberan, Confederate, European and Middle Eastern territories in the early 50s. They were dropped from high altitude aircraft over strategic locations, and the extremely advanced robots overtook large swaths of land easily before the main Council armies arrived.

The second part of their plan was a full-on invasion of Vail, where VART was based and the wormhole was held. As the armies clashed throughout Terralibero, the Council gave a special order to the elite robot Socialist One, programming it to reach the wormhole at all costs.

The robot searched for clues regarding the wormhole's exact location, and discovered from dead Terraliberan soldiers that the armor of the Powered Infantry used arcane technology that used wormhole-power to slow down time for the wearer, allowing the soldier to put the world in slow motion. This allowed for precise aiming, fast physical blows and avoidance of blows, and escape from attack.

Socialist One activated the wormhole matrix in the armor and it tapped into his electronics, letting him see everything tied to the wormhole's power. His squad-mates, tied to him, aquired a similar power.

This new knowledge combined with their programming sent Socialist Robot One on a rampage to Vail, pursuing its goal rabidly. It breached the defenses of Vail and led a special forces unit into VART headquarters.

Once